Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce

I luuuuuv enchiladas.  Those rolled and saucey little pillows not only taste amazing, but also hold a spot near and dear to my heart.  How so?   Well, when I was in my early twenties I made chicken enchiladas for my new boyfriend and he LOVED them…..SO much so, in fact, that he stuck around and decided to marry me!  I’m sure true love and all the other great stuff that goes along with dating had something to do with our happily ever after, but the enchiladas surely didn’t hurt amiright?!

Here is my super simple recipe for homemade enchilada sauce.  Yes, you can buy canned or bottled sauce, it won’t hurt you, it’s totally fine. BUT I like to make homemade sauces when I can and this one is SO easy, so inexpensive and really, really packed with flavor.  Plus, when your friends and family say how great your food tastes, it’s really fun to get to say I made that enchilada sauce!

Necessities:

1 can tomato paste (6 oz size)

3 cups water

1 Tablespoon oil (either light Olive oil or canola)

1 Tablespoon flour

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1.5 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne (you can adjust this to more or less depending on the level of heat you like)

Method:

In a medium sauce pan heat the oil over medium high heat and sprinkle in the flour and whisk for 1 minute. It should be bubbling like the photo below.

Next add in the can of tomato paste and 3 cups of water and whisk, whisk, whisk.  It might look lumpy until all of the tomato paste breaks up. Don’t mind the blurry picture, it was an action shot while I was whisking 😉

Now is the time to add in your spice blend to make your sauce taste like enchiladas.  Feel free to adjust the seasoning to your preference, but I’ve found the blend to be a good balance of all the flavors and not over powering with heat.  But if you love spice then crank up the cayenne!

Once you add the spices allow the sauce to simmer for about 10 minutes so all the flavors meld together.  You will end up with a little over 3 cups of sauce, which is plenty for 2 pans of enchiladas.  Check back next week to see how I use this sauce to make one of my husband’s favorite meals.

Time Saving Tip: When measuring out the spices for your sauce, measure out an extra batch and place in a labeled ziploc bag. Then next time you want to make enchilada sauce you will just have to grab the bag and your spices will be ready to go!